New year, new skirt, new top, new stock, new post…

So I hope you all had a great night last night seeing in the new year. I surprised myself by staying up way past my bedtime – and not feeling at all bad today. Wahoo.

It’s been pouring down with rain today, which I love. It means that no-one expects you to get out of your pyjamas and go outside, so I can stay on the sofa, watch Heartland and update my blog and Etsy shop. And eat all the left over junk food from last night. 🙂

Yesterday on the other hand was lovely and sunny so I took the opportunity to take some photos of a new skirt and top and to use our new camera lens (a very welcome christmas present).

I made the skirt and top over the weekend. The skirt is a really simple pleated skirt – literally just a collection of rectangles. The skirt pieces pleated to the rectangular waistband pieces. The only thing I did differently was to sew the waistband centre front seams after attaching the waistband to the skirt. This way it made sure that it was the exact correct size.

Another Christmas gift was some fabric pastels, so I played around with these on this skirt. It was so fun and so easy – I just drew some parallel lines above the hem to give it a bit of a design feature, ironed it and now it’s permanent. Pretty huh?

I also made this hemlock pashmina top following Miss P’s inspiration and a bit of a hemlock pattern hack. I apologise for the sheerness – it didn’t look that bad in the mirror. I’m not to sure about the top. I think I hacked it too much so the neckline doesn’t sit properly now and the armholes are too tight. I might remake it into more of a vest top and finish the edges with bias tape. I’ll add it to the to do pile (first one of the year!)

I really like the skirt and top combo, but I actually made the skirt for my Etsy shop.

In the spirit of the new year I have been having a sort out of all my handmade items. Here’s to a clean, fresh start and all that jazz. Most of these dresses have only been worn for blog photos or one off events. I think the problem I have with making my own clothes is that I make something new for any event. Lots of these clothes don’t fit or I have nowhere to wear them so I’ve listed them in my shop. Head on over there if you want to check out the new stock. And because it’s the new year and I love all you guys so much, you can get 10% off everything with the discount code BLOGFOLLOW10 throughout all of January.